FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 256445. December 2, 2021.]
CHIN CHUA YAP AND EDWARD YAP, petitioners, vs.ALLIED BANKING CORPORATION (NOW PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK), respondent.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, First Division, issued a Resolution dated December 2, 2021which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 256445 (Chin Chua Yap and Edward Yap v. Allied Banking Corporation (now Philippine National Bank). — This is a Petition for Review on Certiorari1 assailing the Court of Appeals' (CA) Resolutions dated September 4, 2020 2 and March 23, 2021 3 in CA-G.R. CV No. 114602, which dismissed the petitioners' appeal for their failure to file the appellants' brief on time.
The petition is meritorious.
The relevant portion of the Court's Administrative Circular No. 43A-2020 (AC No. 43A-2020) issued on August 3, 2020 states:
In view of the imposition of Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) in Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan and Laguna from 4 to 18 August 2020, and in addition to the provisions of Administrative Circular No. 43-2020 [inadvertently numbered as A.C. No. 42-2020] dated 2 August 2020, the courts in the said areas during the period of 4 to 18 August 2020, shall also observe, as follows:
1. The reglementary periods for the filing of petitions, appeals, complaints, motions, pleadings and other court submissions before the courts shall be suspended from 4 to 18 August 2020, and shall resume on 19 August 2020, without prejudice to those who have already filed such pleadings and documents within their reglementary periods. In the same manner, the periods for court actions with prescribed periods are likewise suspended, and shall resume on 19 August 2020. (Emphasis supplied.)
xxx xxx xxx
The subjects of "shall be suspended" and "shall resume on 19 August 2020" are the "reglementary periods," not "the filing of petitions, appeals, complaints, motions, pleadings and other court submissions." AC No. 43A-2020 suspended the reglementary periods for filing court submissions and not merely the filing of pleadings, as the CA interpreted. The deadlines of the submissions from August 4 to 18, 2020, will not be moved to August 19, 2020. Simply put, in view of AC No. 43A-2020, the reglementary periods will not run from August 4, 2020 to August 18, 2020; it will resume or commence to run again on August 19, 2020.
Here, the petitioners' deadline to file their brief is August 9, 2020. AC No. 43A-2020 stopped the running of the reglementary period on August 4, 2020. Since petitioners still had six days before the suspension, they still have six days from August 19, 2020, or on August 24, 2020, to file their brief. While AC No. 43A-2020 did not extend the reglementary periods for fifteen (15) days for all litigants, it is the necessary consequence of the suspension on petitioners' reglementary period. Therefore, the petitioners' brief was timely filed on August 24, 2020.
FOR THESE REASONS, the petition is GRANTED. The Court of Appeals' Resolutions dated September 4, 2020 and March 23, 2021 in CA-G.R. CV No. 114602 are REVERSED. The case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for the conduct of proper proceedings with dispatch.
SO ORDERED."
By authority of the Court:
(SGD.) LIBRADA C. BUENADivision Clerk of Court
By:
MARIA TERESA B. SIBULODeputy Division Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1.Rollo, pp. 12-40.
2.Id. at 45-47. Penned by Associate Justice Manuel M. Barrios, with the concurrence of Associate Justices Ronaldo Roberto B. Martin and Tita Marilyn B. Payoyo-Villordon.
3.Id. at 49-52.